By Dr. Judy Soborowicz, Active Health Chiropractic
If someone has recommended chiropractic to you, but you don’t know how it could be different from what you have already done, you might just want to think about giving it a try. Chiropractic, one of the fastest growing natural health care professions in the world today, is uniquely focused on healthy function of the nervous system in relationship to the musculoskeletal system, without the use of drugs or surgery.
Both systems talk to each other within the body. The nervous system includes the brain, spinal cord and all the nerves present in every part of our body. The muscles and bones of our body make up our musculoskeletal system. Our ability to effortlessly adjust our movements from a rapid, intense athletic event to one that requires slow deliberate motion depends on the coordination of these systems. Pain, decreased movement, or loss of balance can be useful feedback and may reveal disruptions in healthy movement patterns. Application of a chiropractic adjustment where necessary leads to correction of abnormal movement patterns, thus reducing pain and restoring strength, performance and function.
The many bones in the human body are linked together as a functional whole by connections at joints, which are supported by a vast coordination of nerves, ligaments, and muscle. Healthy movement patterns rely on the nervous system to function without our constant conscious attention. Old injuries such as ankle sprain, or shoulder or spinal injury may show up in movement even after the acute pain has gone away. The complex reason for this is simple. The many joints and muscles in the body allow for great flexibility and the nervous system allows for great adaptability. We are able to compensate and replicate movements so well that hidden loss of joint function may not be immediately obvious.
Chiropractic adjustments are applied to joints of the body where loss of motion leading to changes in movement has occurred. Think of walking on a boot cast after an injury or surgery. Walking with the boot, along with the underlying injury, creates an unavoidable movement dysfunction. Functional movement should be restored once the boot is off, but often times dysfunction is retained and simply becomes a part of the way one moves. The inevitable effects of movement dysfunction become known over time appearing first as changes in athletic performance or poor balance, and eventually can lead to chronic repeated sprains, strains, tendonitis, reduced mobility, headaches, poor posture, weakness, fatigue, and arthritis. Due to prolonged dysfunctional movement over time, compensations can even result in the need for pain medications or even surgical repair.
Movement is key to social and physical activity. Dysfunction saps energy, increases the use of harmful or addictive medications, and reduces independence and quality of life. When stretching/strengthening exercises, time, and/or pain medications alone haven’t led to an improvement or preservation of your ability to move, consider chiropractic. A specific chiropractic approach analyzing the functional whole of your movement may reveal an underlying cause not previously addressed. Observation of movement patterns, using gait, (walking) and reflexes can reveal old patterns of compensation that are able to be corrected using specific chiropractic adjustments.
A chiropractic adjustment addresses movement of the joints and muscles in the body as a functional whole, restoring joint integrity and correcting compensation and dysfunction wherever possible. Chiropractic is a unique and powerful approach, working in concert with the body’s own natural coordination via the nervous system and musculoskeletal system to restore stabilization and joint integrity as well as optimize movement and overall expression of life.
Doctor Judy Soborowicz provides chiropractic at Active Health in Eau Claire, with her husband, and fellow chiropractor John.
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